On the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin there was a strange clock of an absolutely incredible design. This is an ancient Slavic clock, a Tartar clock, which was used everywhere and apparently for many centuries.
Tartary clock
If you look for information about the first Russian clock, then we will stumble upon Wikipedia, an article about the clock on the Spasskaya Tower.
It is possible that some will be surprised to learn about unusual Russian watches that are not similar to modern ones and will even start to google further and find many surprises for themselves.
You can read a lot of interesting things about them on the Internet, although there is a lot of confusion there. It seems to me that the main thing in this issue, the very essence, is either completely hushed up, or simply relegated to the background. I'll clarify.
The first Russian watch. Official version
Promotional video:
It is believed that the clock in Moscow first appeared in 1404. They were located not on the Kremlin tower, but in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, not far from the Annunciation Cathedral.
The first documentary mention of these first clocks is found in the Litsevoy Chronicle Code (Trinity Chronicle). The chronicle itself is given by Karamzin in volume 5 of the History of the Russian State. The chronicle is named after the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, where it was kept. It was written in half-ustav of the 15th century. on parchment. Discovered in the monastery library in the 1760s. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences G. F. Miller. Burned down during the Moscow fire in 1812. Perhaps, it is a list of the Arch of Metropolitan Cyprian 1408.
“In the summer of 6912, the great prince Vasilei Dmitrievich planned a watchmaker and put him in his courtyard behind the church behind the Holy Annunciation. This same watchmaker will be called watchmaking; at every hour he strikes the bell with a hammer, measuring and counting the hours of night and day. Not a man striking, but human-like, self-ringing and self-propelled, strangely beautifully uncommon is human cunning, dreamed and exaggerated. The master and artist of this are some monk, who came from the Holy Mountain, a native of Serbin, named Lazar. The price of this is more than half a hundred rubles."
We read on the website "History of Russia":
“One of the innovations in Russian life was the clock chime. Their social significance is especially clear in the distant years, when the ringing of the city clock marked the beginning and end of trade in the market, hours of work and rest, etc. In the obverse chronicle of the 16th century. we find an image of a tower clock with a dial with Slavic numerals from "a" (1) to "vi" (12). “The dial of the watch is blue and round, three blue weights hang under it, the middle one is large, on the sides there are two small ones. The center of the dial is ornamented with palmettos. The numbers go along the rim … Above is a combat device: on a vertical rod, a blue shield directed with a sharp end to the bell. The bell is small, it fits in an arch."
Yes, only this text was copied not from the chronicle, but only describes a miniature from the lost Faithful annalistic set. And you have 3 weights and a bell in the arch. Is it possible to draw conclusions on this?
So, are we talking about "Russian" watches? Here - no way. 12 o'clock in a circle, the usual hands are in place. Installed by the monk Lazarus.
It turns out that we are not talking about any special "Russian, Slavic, Tartar hours".
So, the clock appeared on the Spassky (Frolovskaya until 1658) tower only in the middle of the 16th century.
“The first clock on the Frolovskaya Tower, according to documents, was installed in the 16th century. In 1585 they were already working, for which watchmakers received 4 rubles and 2 hryvnias a year, and 4 yards of cloth for clothes. In 1614 the watchmaker of the Spasskaya Tower was Nikifor Nikitin, whose duties included supervision of the work of watches, their timely factory, as well as repairs."
As for the history of the tower clock in general, it turns out the following:
“The tower clocks of Milan (1335), Strasbourg (1352), Nuremberg (1361), Augsburg (1364), Paris and London (1370), driven by a load, showed not only time, but also the position of the heavenly bodies, mechanical puppet shows.
In 1404, under the great Moscow prince Vasily I, a similar clock made by the master Lazar Serbin from the Athos Monastery was installed in the Moscow Kremlin. In 1436 the tower clock was erected in Novgorod, and forty years later - in Pskov. " [Source]
In total, they took over the watchmaking immediately and as it is, and began to build after the Kremlin the same everywhere.
But, we read "History of Science and Technology" part 2, U / P Author A. A. Sheipak:
“The first Moscow clocks were made by monk Lazar Serbin in 1404 by order of Prince Vladimir Dmitrievich, son of Dmitry Donskoy. This monk arrived in Moscow from Athos, where there were several Orthodox monasteries, which spread Byzantine culture among the Slavs. They were installed in one of the towers of the white-stone Kremlin, not far from the place where the Annunciation Cathedral is now. These clocks were arranged in a special way. Usually, in a watch, the hand rotates, and the dial remains stationary. Immediately it was the other way around: the dial rotated, but the hand remained motionless. And the arrow was outlandish: in the form of a small sun with rays, which was fixed on the wall above the dial. To top it off, on the dial, it was marked not 12 o'clock as usual, but as much as seventeen."
Stop! Maybe the author A. A. Sheipak was wrong? Or does he not visit the "History of Russia" website? Maybe he has doubts creeping in about the "Litsevoy Chronicle Code" by the found "luminary of Russian history" with a "spotless" reputation GF Miller?
Sheypak Anatoly Aleksandrovich - organized the Department of Electrical Engineering, Heat Engineering, Hydraulics and Power Machines.
Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Worker of Higher School of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Transport, Professor and Full Member of the International Academy of Sciences of San Marino, Member of the International Academy of Sciences and Arts, Member of the Scientific and Methodological Council on Mechanics and Chairman of the Scientific and Methodological Commission on Hydraulics of the Federal Agency of Education.
Author of over 200 publications: 3 monographs, 11 textbooks (1 with the stamp of the Ministry of Education, 2 with the stamp of the NMS), one textbook (with the stamp of the UMO), 8 standard and exemplary curricula), forty inventions (20 of them are used in industry) … 35 articles and reports at scientific conferences were published abroad.
How so?
And then something very interesting happens, since all, without exception, resources, one way or another write the following:
“In the early years of the 17th century, the blacksmith Shumilo Zhdanov Vyrachev was summoned to the capital from the Komaritskaya volost of the Ustyug district. He was instructed to make and install a new "battle clock" - chimes on the Frolovskaya tower. Shumila was helped by his father and son. The Vyrachenykh clock had 24 divisions, they showed daytime - every hour from sunrise to sunset. Then the rotating dial returned to its original position and the night clock began to count down. At the time of the summer solstice, the day lasted 17 hours, the rest fell on the night. The revolving circle of the dial depicted the vault of heaven, numbers went around the circumference. A ray of gilded sun, fixed above the circle, served as an arrow and indicated the hour. The Vyrachevsky clock ran regularly for about twenty years, but when the tower was rebuilt in 1624, it was sold by weight to the Spassky Monastery in Yaroslavl for 48 rubles:such was the cost of 60 pounds of iron."
The Austrian ambassador A. Meyerberg wrote about the clock restored after the fire of 1654 as one of the sights of Moscow at that time:
“The main clock to the east is on the Frolovskaya Tower, above the Spassky Gate, near a large trading square or market, near the palace bridge. They show the hours of the day from sunrise to sunset. During the summer solstice, when there are the longest days, this clock shows and strikes until 17, and then the night lasts 7 hours. Attached to the wall from above, a still image of the sun forms an arrow showing the clock, indicated on the rotating hour circle. This is the richest watch in Moscow."
Augustin Meyerberg; 1622-1688) - Austrian baron, traveler and diplomat.
Is it possible that Mr. Sheypak confused the 17th century Motto with the 15th century clock? Strange, but such a mistake is common.
There was also the historian Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin, who wrote the book "The Domestic Life of Russian Tsars."
Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin (17 [29] September 1820, Tver - 31 December 1908 [13 January 1909], Moscow) - Russian archaeologist and historian, specialist in the history of the city of Moscow.
Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of historical and political sciences (1884), honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1907), initiator and assistant chairman of the Imperial Russian Historical Museum named after Emperor Alexander III, privy councilor.
In his book, we read the following:
“We do not know what the mechanical design of this watch was. Indicated, or knotted, circles or wheels, that is, dials, were arranged only on two sides, one in the Kremlin, the other in the city, and consisted of oak ties, collapsible on checks, reinforced with iron hoops. Each wheel weighed about 25 pounds. The middle of the wheel was covered with blue paint, a gap, and gold and silver stars with two images of the Sun and the Moon were scattered over it. Obviously, this decoration represented the sky. Around in the border were the indicated words, that is, Slavic numbers, copper, thickly gilded, 24 in total, between them were placed half-hour stars, silvered. The indicated words on the Spassky clock were measured in arshins, and on the Troitsky ones - in 10 vershoks. Since in these hours, instead of the arrow, the dial itself, or the indicating wheel, turned around, a fixed beam was affirmed at the top,or a star with a ray like an arrow, moreover, with the image of the Sun."
It's funny, isn't it, that the description of the clock completely converges except for the detail that the book says about 24 numbers and in the picture there are 16 of them for the text !!!
This picture is so similar to Meyerberg's drawing that at first I thought it was, but count the letters!
Is the number 13 suddenly missing? It was missed, since the next according to the Slavic score goes 14, 15, 16, 17.
All this is very strange and it seems that all this dance with the number of hours in the day of the old Russian clock is not from ignorance, but a deliberate distortion of the truth.
The Old Believers, more precisely calling itself the "Old Russian Inglistic Church of Orthodox Old Believers-Ingling", say that a day is counted for 16 hours a day.
“The hour is divided into 144 parts, the part is divided into 1296 parts, the part is divided into 72 moments, the moment is divided into 760 moments, the moment is divided into 160 whitefish, the whitefish is divided into 14,000 centigs.
Day - day, was originally divided into 16 hours.
Week - 9 days. The days are named: Monday, Tuesday, Tritaynik, Quadruple, Friday, Six, Week, Octo and Week The Ynglings consider these names to be reconstruction, citing quotations from P. Ershov's fairy tales as arguments.
Month - 40 days (even) or 41 days (odd). Total 9 months: Ramhat, Islet, Beylet, Galet, Dylet, Elet, Veilet, Haylet, Tylet
You can even find on the forums how to make old Russians on the basis of ordinary watches. But, here 16 hours and 13 in its place and not as in Zabelin's book and not 17 as in Meyerberg.
They claim that their clock is real old and has nothing to do with the "Russian clock" of the Spasskaya tower.
There is an explanation for 17 and 24 hours:
“In the XVI-XVII centuries in Russia, the daily measurement of time was used, when the duration of the hour was set constant, but, depending on a certain date of a particular month of the year, the number of“day”and“night”hours changed. Their number ranged from 7 to 17, while the dial on the Kremlin clock moved, and the only hour hand was stationary. Church services were held according to this timetable, but it was canceled by the synod in 1722 with the replacement of the previous hours by all-European ones, and the beginning of the day was midnight, and not morning, as it was before."
“This 'old' clock has no division by 17. There are also 24 hours in a day. This watch showed day and night time alternately. Depending on the day and month, the number of "daytime" and "nighttime" ranged from 7 to 17. That is, for example, in winter there were 7 “day” and 17 “night” hours. In March 12 “daytime” and 12 “night”, and in May 17 “day” and 7 “night”. In total, all the same, 24 hours a day. In general, this is the same clock as now, only showing the daytime and nighttime)) ".
… That is, if, for example, in the spring in some period of time there are 14 dark night hours, and the remaining 10 are daytime hours, such a dial should have rotated (the hand is motionless) to number 14, and then scroll back to number 1 and from it is already daylight hours."
It would seem that this description explains everything and there are no questions here. But are there not many inconsistencies here and there to close the topic?
Another oddity, in my opinion, is that there is an assertion that the countdown in Russian watches went counterclockwise as now, but all the existing pictures do not confirm this in any way. In this case, the letters should go from right to left in a circle and not from left to right in the case of the rotating dial and in the version with arrows.
But, be that as it may, how many hours there were in the day is also important! The clock on the Spasskaya Tower (for now, we will continue to talk only about them, for simplicity) is not a toy, not a fashionable device! Of course, again, all the Russians are wild and stupid, and you see the first watch for us, whether a foreigner built it, and of course a monk.
But why did he suddenly decide to install a system that no one has ever used anywhere before?
The story is exactly the same as with Cyril and Methodius! Didn't it seem strange to you that for some reason two monks invented the alphabet for the Slavs and didn't just take it and didn't give the Greek letters to "savages"? And why does Lazarus set the clock not like everyone else, but does everything exactly the opposite?
1. It is not the hand that turns but the dial.
2. The dial rotates in the opposite direction (that is, counterclockwise as is customary now).
3. 17 hours apparently all the same in a day and no 24.
4. Astronomical clock, hour depending on the season and location.
You have to understand that people used these watches, they lived according to them, so they perceived the world and time. This is not a joke!
Allow me a little more from the book "The Domestic Life of Russian Tsars":
“By the way, let us tell you a few details about the tower clock, which were absolutely necessary in the palace due to the large number of officials who lived and worked there, large and small, who were obliged either to appear, or to prepare something at the appointed hour. The use of pocket, or zep, watches at that time was very insignificant, partly due to their rarity and high cost, because Russian watchmaking almost did not exist and Russian masters of pocket watches were as rare as the watches of Russian manufacture; and besides, the German watches, which were nevertheless easier to get, albeit expensive, did not correspond to the Russian ones in terms of their division of time and, therefore, were inconvenient for use. The Russian hours divided the day into daytime hours and nighttime hours, depending on the sunrise and sunset,so that at the minute of sunrise on the Russian clock it struck the first hour of the day, and at sunset - the first hour of the night, therefore almost every two weeks the number of daytime hours, as well as nighttime, gradually changed as follows, as recorded in the calendar of those days."
The clock was not a curiosity. They were necessary and used. I just want to ask, what outside the palace was not so necessary for the clock? And in other cities?
All the authors notice that the watches were inaccurate, some even say that they were not mechanical at all, but the watchmakers turned the circle with their hands.
The rudeness of the work is deduced from the very idea that the Russians are so stupid that the day was measured by daylight hours and the hour was not fixed.
But what if it was an understanding of the world, and not a simple whim? How difficult it is to get used to switching to summer and winter time now, what low labor productivity in the dark time of the day everyone knows, even when it’s just cloudy work is not the same. Man is a part of nature and not a machine, why do we think that a machine counting time for hours, minutes and seconds, artificially created time zones and legislative transitions to winter-summer time are suitable for us?
Were the supposedly first Russian watches primitive if the mechanism was able to measure time depending on the day and was not twisted manually by watchmakers? Although many people assume that the watchmakers let the clock down every day, this and that by hand, but is this not nonsense? Why then even hang up a clock?
Themselves repeatedly declare that Europeans' watches, even pocket ones, were not such a curiosity, but in the 17th century they continue to put watches in the Russian manner even on the main square of the country.
They are also very reluctant to talk about the fact that there were many hours in Russia. They talk more about Moscow watches and not Russian ones - Horologium Moscoviticum as some kind of curiosity, like a watch in the Soviet toy store "Detsky Mir".
"Even before the superstructure, the Frolovskaya tower, apparently, had a clock, as did the Troitskaya and Taynitskaya ones."
Zabelin:
“Indeed, at the end of the XVI century. in 1585, the tower clock stood already on the three gates of the Kremlin, on three sides: on the Frolovskie, or Spasskie, on the Robe, now Trinity, and on the Water, opposite the Secret, or Taynitsky.
The clock stood in wooden tents or towers specially built on the gates for this purpose. At each clock there was a special clock, and at the Rizpolozhenskys there were even two, who observed the serviceability and repairs of the mechanics. At the beginning of the XVII century. the clock is also mentioned on the Nikolsky Gate. In 1624 the old battle clock of the Spassky Gate was sold by weight to the Spassky Yaroslavsky Monastery, and instead of them new ones were built, in 1625, by the Englishman Christopher Galovey, who for this clock at the same time built a high stone tent in the Gothic style over the gate instead of a wooden one, decorating the gate to this day. At the same time, the Russian bell-writer Kirilo Samoilov merged 13 bells by the clock. The clock, therefore, was with interchanges, or with music."
There were many Russian watches
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower was not the only one. And the rest of the watches were made, for sure, according to the same principle. European watches were not in demand not because of the price, but because they were different, they were not used in Russia, the people, people measured life and understood time differently.
According to the testimony of the Dutch traveler N. Witson (60s of the 17th century), the Russians "have few hours, and where there are, the dial rotates there, and the hand stands motionless: it is directed upward, pointing to the number of the rotating dial …"
What is said about 12 o'clock in the Observational Codex can say a lot about its very reliability as a whole. Here and the stories with the monks Lazarus can and should be doubted. I can't imagine how in the 15th century one system was put in place, and in the 17th a completely supposedly unprecedented other system was invented! And then this other, as if inconvenient and inaccurate, is replaced again with the old one. This is not just a story about a watch, this is a serious matter!
Every now and then they talk about the clock on the Spasskaya tower so that one gets the impression that they were unique and one of a kind. Not with the aim of showing that in Russia the timing was different, but that supposedly it turns out the other way around, they were staged once out of stupidity, just not like everyone else. The clock itself is confused, either in the 15th century, or in the 17th century, or on the Spasskaya Tower, or in the courtyard of the prince, or on one of the turrets of the white-stone Kremlin. All this chatter distracts attention from the main thing, makes the very fact of having such a clock kind of funny, as an isolated case that says nothing about that real story, about how our ancestors lived.
Since the watches themselves have not survived, there is no reliable information, the authors build their assumptions on the basis of documents that have preserved instructions on the prices of watches, the number of watchmakers, payments to masters, etc. Based on them, conclusions are drawn about the poor quality and inconvenience of the system itself.
Only in 1705, by order of Peter the Great, the Spassky clock was redesigned, “against German custom, at 12 o'clock,” for which, back in 1704, he ordered a combat clock with chimes from Holland for 42,474 rubles. But this is in Moscow, and how much was left in Russia in the use of Russian watches?
Reserve "Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda" Aleksandrov, Vladimir region.
Peter the Great and chimes
A little light on all this leapfrog of conjectures and contradictory facts is shed by history with the replacement of ancient Russian clocks.
In 1705, by order of Peter the Great, the Spassky clock was altered, "against German custom, at 12 o'clock," for which, back in 1704, he ordered a combat clock with chimes from Holland for 42,474 rubles.
Let's see again how it looked before. So, it was:
And it became:
What I want to draw your attention to is the statement that the watch is “altered” or, as they say, “replaced”.
Forgive me, either I don't have eyes, or it's just a blatant lie. Not altered or replaced, but torn out, destroyed, erased from memory, and the installation site was bricked up. And from above they attached the chimes familiar to us today. Which, by the way, do not even fit in size, should be a little smaller, and not in style with the tower itself, if you take a closer look. The dial does not fit into the arch, but closes it, hiding its parts underneath. They pushed all the business quickly.
Even the columns on the sides of the arch had to be broken, only hemp remained. All this clearly indicates that the watch was not ordered on purpose, but the first ones that came in a hurry were bought. And what kind of haste could be? Stood- stood for several centuries the clock on the tower and suddenly once !?
True, now, this is not even the Dutch clock, and in 1770 they were replaced by English chimes, which, by the way, speaks a lot about their quality, they stood for less than 70 years, unlike the old system. By the way, in the 17th century a goby (4 years old) or 40 three-seated logs and 1 large surf nail cost 1 ruble (From the book by A. S. Melnikova "Bulat and Gold"). I have no information on the 18th century, but you can even imagine with this example what 42,474 rubles is.
I am not a fan of sharp statements, I try to assume more or it is better to pose only a question to the reader so that he can decide for himself.
But, Christmas tree sticks. What a rework !?
By the way, on the other side, there is the same empty arch with the same window. The lower dial of the old watch was on two sides, and the upper part, where the chimes are now, was on four sides! All of Russia sees this picture every year on the night of broadcasting of congratulations to the country by the President, few people understand the truth with what, but even fewer people who think about the void in the arch on the Spasskaya Tower.
While raking the "facts" I could not get rid of the feeling that important information was being overwritten and all nonsense was protruding. As if specially endless details about who received or spent how many rubles, and what cloth, and how many watchmakers, and in what year. All this seeming at first glance, important statistics is not worth a damn, not only do the same events jump in time from author to author and twist, and besides, there is no sense in them.
Not about the structure of watches, not about their principle of operation, not about the number of the same, no one has the slightest idea, but only guesses. And all this is abundantly mixed with stories that in such and such a year there was a fire, and in such and such a year the clock was altered, or else they installed new ones and again removed and made others. All this is for a diversion, I want to tell you. So that the devil himself broke his leg. Take away from the main thing. We had our own ancient time system and our own clock!
It is clear that Russia is special to become and its common yardstick cannot be measured. But, while everywhere they try to preserve the ancient heritage, to preserve as much as possible any trifle, would it not be reasonable to leave, even outdated, albeit out of order watches, they are even as a decorative element, decoration is very good! Leave for posterity, than break it out, sell them for scrap and put the first one that comes across even not suitable in size squalor.
I understand that there are and have been more and more important problems, but this whole story with the Russian clock in the example of the Spasskaya Tower is nothing more than hiding the truth and obvious malicious sabotage.
I will add another drawing of the view of the Kremlin from the works of Tanner (1678) where supposedly the tower on the gate with a skillfully made clock is only for some reason there are arrows! Not to mention that higher, where the chimes are now, there are no clocks at all.
Although here you are, Olearius has everything in place.
Well, here's the 1800s, and what happened after the P1 decree:
With that part of the clock that took the place of the current chimes, old Russian to Dutch, in general I still do not understand. According to the drawing, I counted 12 divisions and there are some similar zodiac signs, apparently this is the month. The shooters are not visible there, it is not known whether this part was static, decorative, which is unlikely, but maybe, or had a mechanism.
It turns out that Tanner has either not the Spasskaya Tower or an obvious forgery, since it is not even possible to rank the drawing as a later one. All the same, the clock is not in its place. It can be assumed that under the guise of the Frolovskaya (Spasskaya) tower, perhaps, we are slipping the Trinity tower, but comparing Tanner with Olearius it is clear that this is one and the same tower. Even the perspective in the drawing is the same and the domes of churches inside the Kremlin are completely the same.
By the way, on Troitskaya, as you can easily see, the clock was the same before, but now, like on Spasskaya, there are bare bricks and a window. Moreover, like on Spasskaya, there are two arches under the clock and it would not be superfluous to assume that they were decorated like this the same pair of Russian watches as Spasskaya.
Hack
At the presentation of the 2011 state prize V. Molotkov, the Hermitage museum watchmaker restorer said:
“It so happened in Russia that the Russian people threw away their watches. Then the Germans arrived. You see, the Germans are neat people, they made signs in Moscow, in St. Petersburg, “Fixing the Clock” and also wrote in German, because, perhaps, foreigners were in these cities. In German, an old watch is "alte Uhren". When the master's clock stopped, he called the butler and said: here the clock is up, take it to the hack. The fact is that "alte uren" sounds like "hack"."
We have been drinking the results of the German repair to this day. Here it is - trash.
Outcome
Not clear yet? Confused? If you put everything back from head to foot, then everything will become clear. This clock and its structure clearly corresponds to the ancient system of counting - the Hexadecimal number system. After all, the number "16" came to us from the depths of history as a basic, basic number.
1 yard is equal to 16 vershoks (71.12 cm). This is a measure of length, as you can imagine.
1 octopus is equal to 1/8 of a tithe (measure of area), and 1/8 is just a part of an integer equal to 16.
1 pood is equal to 16 kilograms, but here we need to talk about some more features of the Russian scale of scales. The fact is that a pood is divided into pounds, and there are 32 of them! (2x16). The pound consists of lots, where the lot is equal to six spools of 32 shares each. And one fraction (the smallest unit of measurement of slavs) equals 0.0444 modern grams!
The whole system of measures, accounts, time is a single system. Looking ahead, I will say, in relation to the clock - the clock was not only on the towers, but they were on EVERY tower, on the structures that we call temples, or rather, belfries. And the word hour is not from the church service, but on the contrary the church service from the hour. I will tell you everything in detail and show you.
Continuation: "Russians do not watch the clock."
Author: Sil2